What is your name and role within the band?
Liv Cartledge
Writer/Front woman
How did you start?
I’ve always been around music. My Dad was a musician and taught me how to play guitar when I was pretty young on the couch at my Gran and Pops. I’ve been singing since I can remember and started songwriting when I was about 11. The content was pretty average for the most part, but I adopted some songwriting/storytelling styles from voices I heard growing up like Paul Kelly and John Williamson and started writing about people I’d met like a foster child some friends of ours had.
Where are you based?
Right now I’m a bit of a floater. My family home is in Beechworth (North East Victoria) where I grew up. I live in Melbourne at the minute but spend a lot of time on the Hume Hwy floating between Melbourne and Beechy.
Please give an example of your music writing process?
Every song has a different process… I don’t really have a ‘writing process’ as such. Sometimes I’ll scribble down a couple of words and slowly build a song around that. Sometimes I’ll sit at my computer and ‘experiment’; sometimes I’ll sit in the hills somewhere with my guitar and smash out a whole song. It comes in waves.
What are you working on right now?
I actually haven’t been writing a great deal of late. I’m working on the release of the second single off my forthcoming EP ‘Timber’
What is your gear setup?
A lot of the time it’s just me and my acoustic guitar ‘Nash’ which my Uncle Damon built for me (@workingguitars). With my band we’ve got a bit of electric guitar, synth, drums, little drum pad and bass 🙂
What do you like to do outside of music and does it affect your music?
I like exploring. Going on road trips, eating great food, drinking nice wine, visiting markets… that kind of thing.
How would you describe your music genre?
I’d say it’s like a fusion of indie alt folk pop
Do you know any music theory?
Zero. haha. I learned to play guitar from watching my Dads hands so I really just learned like the names of chords and some tabs, never really dived into the theory. I had a go in high school and just could not for the life of me wrap my head around it.
What are your plans for the future?
Write music. Play music. Travel. Eat. Thats about it! That’s pretty much my big plan.
What are you listening to at the moment?
At the moment I’m listening to a lot of The Waifs. They were always on high rotation at home/in the car/wherever when I was younger. Just recently I saw them play at Hamer Hall and remembered why I love them so much.
Who are your top 5 influences and icons?
Off the top of my head…
- Paul Kelly
- Stevie Nicks
- Lisa Mitchell
- Ella Hooper
- The Waifs
When are you playing next?
24th May – Railway Hotel, Brunswick (Supporting Residual)
www.instagram.com/livcartledge
www.facebook.com/livcartledgemusic
